Rendez-Vous LIVE
The Restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris

Online: Wednesday, April 20, 2022
6:30pm ET

In French • 60 min

The tragic fire on April 15, 2019 that nearly destroyed Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the heroic effort to restore one of France’s most historic landmarks remains an important topic of conversation around the world three years later.

On April 20, for Rendez-Vous LIVE, a series curated for French-learners, FIAF will present a discussion in French on the restoration’s progress. The conversation will feature National Geographic journalist Robert Kunzig and Jérémie Patrier-Leitus, Director of Communication, Development and Cultural Programming for the public establishment dedicated to the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.

In time for Earth Month, the virtual conversation will also look at the ongoing ecological challenges of historic preservation.

Jérémie Patrier-Leitus

Jérémie Patrier-Leitus is the Director of Communication, Development and Cultural Programming for the the public establishment dedicated to the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.

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    • This public institution is the contracting authority for the restoration of the cathedral. It oversees the construction, leads the operations and develops the promotion of the site, and of the field work initiated by it, both in France and abroad.

Robert Kunzig

Rob Kunzig has been a science journalist for American magazines since 1983 and environment editor at National Geographic since 2009.

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    • He helped conceive and oversee the magazine’s April 2020 special issue for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Kunzig’s articles have won awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union and have frequently been selected for the annual Best American Science and Nature Writing. He has also written two books: Fixing Climate (with Wallace Broecker) and Mapping the Deep, a book about oceanography, which won the Royal Society prize as science book of the year in 2001. From 1996 through 2008 he was a correspondent in France, based in Dijon. He is a French as well as an American citizen.